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Meeting Friday (3/15) at Venice High On Proposed 6th-12th Program on Campus

Comments Off on Meeting Friday (3/15) at Venice High On Proposed 6th-12th Program on Campus

Posted by venicedispatch on Mar 14, 2013 | Comments Off on Meeting Friday (3/15) at Venice High On Proposed 6th-12th Program on Campus

A public meeting will be held Friday (3/15) at the Venice High School cafeteria to present information and field questions about a pilot school designed for 6th- to 12th-graders sharing space on the campus.

The meeting will be held at 3:20 p.m. and will include officials from the Los Angeles Unified School District, recently re-elected LAUSD school board member Steve Zimmer and principal Elsa Mendoza.

The school board is expected to vote Tuesday on The Incubator School pilot program that will start next fall on a Westside campus with 6th- and 7th-graders. Supporters of the program have said it likely will be located on the Venice High School campus, but the site remains under negotiation and may change. The program would add grades each year until it’s a 6th- to 12th-grade program.

The Incubator School is a pilot school and not a charter school. Pilot schools in the nation’s second-largest district have charter school-like autonomy over curriculum and scheduling, but are overseen by the district and staffed with union teachers.

The Incubator School is supported by Future Is Now Schools, which was founded by Steve Barr, the founder and former chairman of charter operator Green Dot Public Schools. The Incubator School pilot was designed to provide a college-ready curriculum with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. Students in The Incubator School would be expected to operate a small business on campus by 8th grade and a real-world small business by 12th grade.